By Woodrow Kroll
Part 9 - The Side of God So Many Never See
Sears Roebuck and Company began an ad campaign with the slogan, "Come see the many sides of Sears." And I have to tell you I went a couple of years before I figured what that ad was about. Ads are so clever today, you just don't know what they're advertising, you know? You remember the ad, you just don't remember why you remember it. Well, "Come see the many sides of Sears." Basically, what Sears wanted to tell us was "we don't carry our own line of product anymore, we carry other lines as well". Come, see the many sides of Sears.
Well, I want to invite you today to come see the many sides of God. See, we get the wrong picture of God if all we see is God judging sin. We get the wrong picture of God if all we see is allowing sin to take its natural consequence. Now, God will do that. We've already learned that. But one thing we must see is God saving His people as well, because this is a loving God as well as a just God.
Look with me at the book of Hosea. We're going to begin with the first chapter. Again, every time we look at the book of Hosea, we start at the beginning. And that's not because I don't know where else to start, it's because that's where the story is. This is a love story. A man, Hosea, is told to take a wife, Gomer, knowing full well that Gomer is going to become unfaithful to him. But Gomer's relationship to Hosea is to depict God's relationship to Israel, more appropriately, Israel's relationship to God. There will be a good relationship in the beginning, and then Israel will wander away from God and lust after other gods. She will bear the consequences of her own sin and then God will come along and save her and buy her back out of the marketplace of sin, and in His love, draw her back to Himself. Now that's exactly the story of Hosea and Gomer in Hosea chapter one, chapter two and chapter three.
Now we get to the part of the story where God is saving His people. He's already responded to their sin in judgment and now He's saving. Look at Hosea chapter one, verse 10, "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore which cannot be measured or counted in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people', they will be called sons of the living God." Hey, that's good news. See, there will come a time in the life of Israel, says God, when they will be called, "Not my people." In fact, that's what the son's name, the third child of Hosea, is named: "Not my people."
But here's the good news, "While you will wander away from God, Israel, and while you will bear the punishment of your own sin, Israel, there will come a day when I will bring you back to Myself and those who have been called 'Not my people' will again be called 'the sons of the living God.'" That's God's salvation! And if you go to the end of the book, if you go to the end of the chapter, if you go to the end of the story, you find out that God's love is always there at the end. You can't get away from the love of God. His salvation is there for us. God will keep His promises to Israel. That's what verse 10 of chapter one is all about. And despite the fact there will be the demise of the northern kingdom, you see that in verses four and five in this passage, despite that fact, God will still keep His covenant promise to Abraham.
In Genesis 22:17, He said, "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky and as the sand of the seashore." God's going to keep that promise. Now that's not a promise made to me. It's not a promise made to the church. It's not a promise made to America. That's a promise made to God's people, Israel. And God will keep that promise because, well, just because that's the kind of God He is! But what kind of a God would He be if you couldn't believe His promises?
God is the original and the ultimate promise keeper. In fact, God was in the promise keeping business before anybody ever heard of Promise Keepers. God has always kept His promise. Just think of some of the promises of God. "For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor, no good thing will He withhold from those who walk blamelessly," Psalm 84:11. God will keep that promise. No good thing will He withhold from you who walk uprightly before the Lord. That's God's promise.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace who's mind is staid on Thee," Isaiah 26:3. That's a promise of God to you. God will keep His promises. That's one way that we know that God will save His people because He promised He would. See, their identity is going to be renewed, God is going to keep His promises to them. And then notice secondly, not only is their identity going to be renewed, but their wounds are going to be healed. Look at Hosea 6:1, "Come, let us return to the Lord." There's a mouthful right there, isn't there? See, the pleading of God to His people is "Come back to Me. Come back to the blessing. Come back to the honor. Come back to the protection of God. Come back to the promises of God. You're living out there following false gods. You're getting wealthy in this world and you're losing eternity. Come back. Let us return to the Lord. Come home to God's love."
That's what God is saying. He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us. Now think about this: He's torn us to pieces. By the way, back in chapter five at verse 14, He says, "I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah, I will tear them to pieces and go away, I will carry them off with no one to rescue them." That's God's judgment. But after God's judgment comes God's salvation. God will tear them to pieces, but then He'll heal them. He'll make them not only as good as new, but He'll make them better than new. That's the promise of God, too, that when God judges us, He heals us as a result of that.
Jeremiah chapter 3:22, "Return faithless people and I will cure your backsliding." The promise of God is that when we sin, sin always leads to judgment. When we sin, if we repent, repentance always leads to salvation. God will save us in His love. He will heal us, He will cure us of our backsliding. It's possible for you, my friend, regardless of what you have done, to enjoy the love of God today. All you have to do is repent of sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise of God, too. He's going to heal our wounds. It talks in verse one about He's injured us, that's the judgment of sin, but He's going to bind up our wounds. The same God who inflicts judgment on us is going to heal the wounds that come from that judgment.
Deuteronomy chapter 32:39, "See now," says God, "that I myself am He. There is no God besides Me. I put to death and I bring to life. I have wounded and I will heal. And no one can deliver out of My hand." Now I want to tell you, you're like David. If you have a choice between judgment, always take the judgment of God. Always fall into the hand of God. Because that hand that brings judgment is also the hand that heals the judgment that is brought. And what we're learning from the book of Hosea is that when his wife wandered away from him, she was in the judgment of God, but God healed that relationship. He brought forgiveness from Hosea to Gomer. He restored a relationship. This woman had sinned against her husband. But her husband loved her, he wouldn't let her go. He took her back. That's what chapter three is all about.
And that's what God does with us. Not only do we have our identity restored to us, see, our identity was lost the day we sinned in the Garden of Eden. God created us with identity. Our identity was sealed to Him. He gave us identity. We were the crown of God's creation. Never forget this: You were not created like the rest of the animals. You're not just the best of all the animals, friend, you aren't even like an animal. I mean the dogs have more likeness to fish than they do to you because God created fish and He created the animals and then He came to you and He breathed into you the breath of life. He didn't do that to any other creature. You are the last of God's creation, the crown of His creation, the zenith of His creation. You are created in the image of God. Cats and dogs and fish and giraffes, they aren't created in the image of God. God made you very special. Each time it says, after its kind, after it's kind, after its kind. When God came to creating man and woman, He created man and woman after His kind.
You and I are more like God than we're like our pets. I'm not just the brainiest of the animals in my household. That may not even be true sometimes. My dog doesn't think it's true. The cat certainly doesn't think it's true. I'm not just the brainiest of the animals in my household; I'm unlike those animals. I am more of kin to God than I am the animals. But you see when I sinned, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, even when you and I sin, we said, "I don't want God. I don't want that relationship. I'll do my own thing." We cut our relationship with God and when we cut our relationship with God we severed our identity. We lost our identity. And we've been trying as a group of people ever since the Garden of Eden to distinguish ourselves and regain our lost identity.
So, you know how we do it? Some people do it through their abilities. You know, if you can just get into the Guinness Book of Records, you'll be somebody. Some people do it through their athletic abilities. They have the great ability to take a round ball and drop it through a round hoop. Now think about that. Your ability is to put a round ball through a round hoop. How many lives does that change? How many people get paid millions of dollars to drop a round ball through a round hoop? You know what happens? One day comes and they get a little arthritis, a little rheumatoid business over here. They can't jump as high and they can't get up there and can't dunk the ball anymore, and you know what happens? They lose their identity. Because their identity was tied up with what they could do for a short period of time.
Other people's identity is tied up in who they are. You know, isn't it interesting the second question we ask people is, "What do you do for a living?" First question, "What's your name? Oh, what do you do for a living? Oh! Vice President of the bank. Whew! Brain surgeon. Plumber!" Hey, when the pipes are leaking, you don't want a brain surgeon. Somehow, our identity is tied up in what we do. But friends, the Bible teaches us that when we are wounded, the same God who wounds us returns our identity to us because He loves us. Our identity is tied up in Him.
Then I can't help but notice this in chapter eleven. Look at this. Look at the tenderness of God in saving us, how He brings us back to Himself, how tender He is. Chapter 11 of Hosea, the first verse: "When Israel was a child I loved him." God told Moses to say to Pharaoh, "This is what the Lord says, 'Israel is My first born son and I told you let My son go so that he may worship Me, but you refused to let My son go,' Exodus chapter four. Look how tender God talks about us being His child. He loved us when we were just His children. Verse two: "The more I called the further they went." The more God loved us, the less we loved Him. Some of you have experienced that in your own family. I think one of the hardest lessons I have ever had to teach young men who are entering the ministry is the lesson that Paul makes reference to in second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 15. Where he says, "The more I loved you, (Corinthians), the less I was loved by you."
There's just something about sinful humanity that the more we love people the less we are loved by them. And that's what he says here. Elizabeth Barrett, when she married Robert Browning, her family was not in favor of the marriage. And so every day Elizabeth Barrett would write a letter to her parents, tell her parents that she loved them, tell her parents every day that she was hoping the day would come when there would be reconciliation. And the parents never wrote back. Never wrote back. And finally, after a period of 10 years she got a huge package in the mail. And there were all the letters she had written for 10 years. All of them unopened. The more I love you, the less I am loved by you.
God shows significant tenderness to us. I mean, He loves us like a little child. He says, "When Israel was a child I loved him. The more I loved you, the more I came to you, the further you went from Me." Look at verse three, He says, "It was I who taught Ephraim to walk." Remember the days when your children took their first steps? This is a very tender God. "I led them with cords of human kindness." Verse four, "I bent down to feed them."
You know what the newest malady in the United States is? It's something called compassion fatigue. We're getting fatigued at all the compassion people expect us to share. The more causes that come our way, the more people who appeal for our funds, the more uncompassionate we become. And see, God will allow judgment for sin. He must be holy and He is holy and He must judge sin because He is holy. But He will temper His judgment with the grace of His restoration. And in the midst of God's judgment of His people, Israel, there is this tender and compassionate God who is drawing them with the cords of human kindness, who is bending over to teach them how to walk, who is bending down to feed them. This is a picture of a loving Father. It's a picture of our God. It's a picture of God who brings hope when there is no hope. It's a picture of God who, while He withholds His love for a short time to bring Israel to her senses, while Hosea is to withhold his love from Gomer for a short time to bring Gomer to her senses. The whole point of this is so that the day may come when he can lavish his love on her again. The whole point is so the day may come when God can lavish His love on Israel again. And the whole point of judging you in your sin is not because God is a meanie. The whole point of judging you in your sin is so that He can again lavish you with His love as He did when He taught you how to walk, as He did when He bent over out of Heaven to feed you. God is anxiously awaiting the day when His sinning people come back to Him so He can show them how much He loves them.
Remember the story of the prodigal son. The father anxiously awaited the day when the young boy would come home so he could lavish his son with his love. God is waiting on that today, too. God wants you to come home. He wants you to come home to His love. And these 14 chapters in Hosea repeat the theme again and again and again. Sin always brings judgment. But repentance always brings salvation. And tying all of that together constantly, whether we see it or not, always is the love of God in our behalf that gives hope to us every day of our lives.
Have you experienced that love? Are you still out wandering in the judgment of your own sin? Still distant from God who loves you, who bent over to feed you, who taught you how to walk? Or have you come home to God's love? Coming home to God's love means coming back to God's salvation. And there is no more tender, more gentle place to be than in the arms of a loving God.
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